Islam Makhachev's Conor McGregor reaction sounds like every keyboard warrior right now

When Conor McGregor was announced as out of UFC 303 due to injury I speculated that the injury might be something small like a finger or a toe break. My reasoning was that, since it wasn't disclosed, it was probably something casual fans or even diehards might not understand. I thought maybe the UFC was trying to save a bit of face and protect McGregor from the people who might not understand. Turns out I might be right.

On Friday McGregor revealed he broke his toe and that's why he was out of his main event fight. Those of us deep in the sport understand that a broken toe can be a big deal, especially when coming in off a losing streak. A toe can affect your balance, your movement, and your concentration. it could also affect your confidence. Those are all things you want when going into a huge fight.

If you look at the comments on McGregor's announcement you see fans accusing him of being scared or overexaggerating a minor injury and that's to be expected. But it's not just the keyboard warriors who are having those thoughts. UFC lightweight champion and No. 1 pound-for-pound king Islam Makhachev is saying the same thing.

Islam Makhachev's called Conor McGregor a chicken for pulling out of UFC 303 and he's not right in the slightest

I'm not surprised that Makhachev would say these things, they aren't exactly friends. And I also know that there's several UFC fighters who would fight with a broken toe. But no one is in the position McGregor is in. He's on a two-fight losing streak to start, he doesn't NEED to fight but if he does, he really needs to win. He's already gone into a fight injured, in fact, that's part of the reason his leg broke so quickly in his last fight. He gambled and it didn't pay off. I don't blame him for not wanting to double or nothing on his health.

We have to stop calling fighters chickens or scare for making smart decisions about their careers. None of us are doing what they are doing and we should learn to respect that they know best when it comes to fighting. We need to stop shaming fighters who take their health and safety into consideration.